


How to Run Away

by EntameWitchLulu



Category: Pocket Monsters: Sword & Shield | Pokemon Sword & Shield Versions
Genre: F/M, Pining, Post Main Game, Zine piece, Zine: Love Ball
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-20
Updated: 2020-11-20
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:54:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27529531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EntameWitchLulu/pseuds/EntameWitchLulu
Summary: Bede only reluctantly accepted his former rival's invitation to join her on her trip to the Isle of Armor. He knows, though, that his feelings are more complicated than that.
Relationships: Beet | Bede/Original Character(s)
Kudos: 4





	How to Run Away

**Author's Note:**

> This was my piece for the Pokemon x OC zine Love Ball! It features my SwSh protag, Flyssa. Please check out the finished zine product, it's free to view digitally!
> 
> https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EoQ9zKHV-LE1D6-E4TfKw962WIS7r-cc/view

“Oh! Perfect timing! Help me carry these!”

Flyssa didn’t wait for an answer as she shoved an armful of sticks and kindling into Bede’s arms, ignoring his splutter of indignance.

“I didn’t come out here with you to haul  _ firewood _ ,” he grumbled.

“People who don’t pitch in don’t get to eat curry!” Flyssa said, grinning as she waggled a finger at him. “Now come on, we’re going to need more. Help me find some!”

She bounced off into the forest, crunching through the fallen leaves with her Boltund close on her heels. Bede scowled. But, he lifted his load, and followed her into the woods.

A cool, crisp breeze put a faint bite into the air, though not yet cold enough to see his breath. The forest smelled like autumn; the trees just beginning to turn colors. In the red and oranges of those few, a cluster of Lilligants cradling Petilils stood out in the crooks of branches, and Skwovets stuffed their cheeks with the ripening crop of berries. The bushes rustled, and a Fomantis darted off. Flyssa’s Boltund shot after it, yipping with excitement.

“We should gather some berries for the curry while we’re out, too,” Flyssa said, craning her neck back to look up into the trees. “And oh! That will be great for kindling!”

“You know, I have a gym to run,” he grumbled at her as she stacked more wood on his pile.

“Then you should have stayed with your gym instead of agreeing to come out with me, Mr. Responsible!” she said, laughing.

Bede wrinkled his nose at her. Surely they didn’t need  _ this  _ much firewood. Sure, there were four people’s worth of Pokemon to feed, but they could make more than one batch of curry.

“Don’t you have exhibition matches or something you could be doing right now, instead of tramping about the Isle of Armor?”

Flyssa grinned, pushing her sunglasses up to rest on the brim of her hat.

“Probably!”

He hated the way her smile made him feel about to boil over, like a volcano bubbling just beneath the skin of his cheeks. He looked away with a harumph, hoping she didn’t notice. She didn’t, of course — Flyssa never noticed anything.

“Why’d you come along if you just want to complain?” she teased him, turning to dig around in the bushes, and brightening as she found some fresh, un-mashed berries.

Bede pressed his lips together. Why  _ had _ he come? Maybe because it was, for some reason, extremely hard to say no to her. Maybe it was because he’d heard Hop was coming, too, and some small streak of petty irritation at the idea of that boy getting ahead of him in any way still burned in his chest.

Flyssa’s deep red hair swung as she popped back from the bushes, and he couldn’t help but let his gaze catch on the way the sunlight, filtered through the leaves, made the strands look like they were on fire. Just like the sudden heat in his face.

He knew the reason he’d come. He also knew he was too proud to admit it, not even to himself.

“I really should be asking  _ you _ why you’re out here,” Bede said, reaching past her to pluck a few more branches onto his stack. This  _ had _ to be enough. “I’m not kidding around. Don’t you have Champion business?”

Flyssa only smiled, letting out a little laugh. But it was enough for him to notice — the flicker in her eyes, the way she quickly looked away from him. He let out a little huff of annoyance. She seemed to think she could hide anything behind a smile.

“Are you running away from something?” he said, shooting her a pointed look that she pointedly avoided. “I’d hate to hear my  _ rival _ doing something so petty.”

“I think you’re imagining things,” Flyssa said lightly. “Come on, I think I saw a Cheri berry tree a little further in!”

It was just too easy to see it. In the way she held herself, somewhat tense, staying just out of his reach, keeping her eyes just slightly out of his gaze, as though not looking at him would be enough to make sure he didn’t know how she felt. Well, maybe that would fool an equally thick-headed person like  _ Hop _ , but not him.

He dropped his armful of sticks, and the sound of them clattering against each other on the ground made Flyssa stop and turn around in surprise. Her lips parted and she tilted her head when he stepped forward, practically pinning her back against a nearby tree. Still, she didn’t look at all concerned, more confused than anything. He grit his teeth. How could she be so  _ dense _ sometimes? Such a brilliant trainer, and yet when it came to important things...

“I know you think you can avoid it,” he said. “Avoid talking about it.”

He stepped towards her again, placing one hand against the tree over her shoulder — not enough to pin her in, but enough to be closer than the heat in his stomach would like to be.

“And maybe Hop and Marnie don’t notice, or are too nice to say anything,” Bede said, “but I think you and I both know I’m not nice.”

“Yeah, I think we can agree on that,” Flyssa said, half smiling with the joke.

Ugh! Why did his cheeks burn at that?? He was supposed to be trying to push her buttons, not letting her push his. He clenched his jaw, curling his hand into a claw against the tree, his nails digging into the bark.

“Are you mad at me?” Flyssa asked.

Her joking tone had dissipated. It left only a quiet resignation. Her shoulders had slumped, and the faintest tired smile tugged at her lips. It was as though all at once, the cheerful mask had fallen away, and he couldn’t tell if she was relieved or not.

“I’m not — I’m not mad at you,” he said. “But I’m frustrated.”

He groaned, closing his eyes for a moment. When he opened them, he glowered at her, leaning forward even closer until his arm pressed against the tree over her head, their faces only inches apart.

“I’m frustrated that you keep doing this,” he said. “That you keep running away.”

“I’m not running,” Flyssa said quietly.

“Oh, really?” he said. “Because if you’re going to be like you were after Eternatus, it makes me wonder why I still consider you my rival.”

Something in Flyssa deflated at that, and he almost regretted saying anything. After Eternatus, it had taken everything Flyssa had had just to face Leon — and Bede still hated that it had been Hop who had convinced her to go in there and win. And even after...he remembered just how quiet she’d gotten. How withdrawn. How she smiled quickly when someone was looking, but kept everyone at a distance. How her eyes got unfocused while she was alone. How quickly she brushed off anyone’s attempts to ask how she felt.

How  _ upset _ he was that it bothered him so much.

Flyssa bit her lip, and Bede suddenly remembered how close they were. His eyes were suddenly transfixed by her lips. His heart thrummed against his rib cage and he tried to remember what he was doing.  _ This isn’t why you’re doing this.  _

“You’re right,” Flyssa whispered, her voice thin and quiet. “I was running away.”

She ducked her head, hiding behind the brim of her hat.

“When Leon mentioned this place, I thought...well, I just needed to go somewhere,” she said. “And...I don’t know.”

“What don’t you know?”

“I don’t  _ know _ ,” Flyssa said, head lifting back to Bede with just a hint of the fire in her eyes that he remembered. “You  _ know _ I never wanted to be Champion, Bede. And you’re right, after Eternatus — even after we got through all of that, with Shielbert and Sordward, it’s all just...it’s so  _ much _ .”

She dug the heels of her palms into her forehead, closing her eyes.

“I didn’t want any of this,” she said, voice cracking. “I didn’t want to be the Champion. I didn’t want to be the one who saved the world from Eternatus. I just...”

She so rarely let herself look so vulnerable in front of others. It...it was doing weird things to Bede’s head. He regretted saying anything, doing anything, if it was going to make her feel like this — if it was going to make  _ him _ feel like this.

“What  _ did _ you want?” he said, almost before he realized he said it.

Flyssa lifted her eyes back to his. They glistened with what he realized were tears, and he instantly berated himself.  _ Idiot!! You weren’t supposed to make her cry! _

But Flyssa smiled tremulously at him.

“I just wanted to be with my friends,” she said. “I just wanted to travel, and explore, and spend nights at the campfire with my friends and my Pokemon, making curry and telling scary stories.”

She sniffled, pushing her glasses up on her face so she could rub at the corner of her eye. Bede swore at himself in his head repeatedly. _ Idiot! Idiot! Of course that’s what she wanted! And you’re ruining it! And stop thinking about her damn lips!! _

But he was so close, and  _ she  _ was so close, and he could only barely resist the rising heat in his chest as he realized that — he wanted to kiss her. He wanted to kiss her so  _ badly _ . Had he wanted to do that all this time?

He almost gave in. He almost let the temptation draw him over the edge, to the point of no return. He almost let his eyes slide shut, almost let himself lean forward until there was no space between their lips.

He let his arm slide off the tree and stepped back, putting space between them again. Ending the moment before he did something he regretted. He found that regret was already seeping into his pores as he stepped away.  _ Who was running away from things now, _ his traitorous brain whispered.

“Ugh,” he said, shoving a hand through his hair. “You’re just — you’re so — simple.”

Flyssa giggled through the tight sound of her throat, rubbing at her other eye. He hated how easily the sound brought a flush to his cheeks. It was unfair. He’d spent his whole life training to be the kind of strong trainer who would never lose, devoted to one goal and one goal only, never to be distracted from it. And now, here in this forest, with the one person who had beaten him, it was so easy to be undone.

“Well, if you hate being the Champion so much, I guess I’ll have to take the position off your hands one of these days,” he said, folding his arms.

Flyssa giggled again, and this time, it sounded more genuine, less burdened by her worries and fears.

“Well, I definitely can’t make it easy for you,” she said. But then she smiled, stepping forward, and heat rushed through him as she gently bumped him with her hip. “But I think you’d make a great Champion.”

She smiled at him, and Bede felt like his insides simply melted.

Then she sighed over the fallen kindling, and bent down to start gathering it.

“Honestly, you made such a mess,” she teased. “You’re good at that, aren’t you?”

“I destroyed one mural. One,” he said, flushing.

She laughed, and he couldn’t be mad at her, and he absolutely hated it. But he bent down to help her pick up the rest of the kindling.

“Let’s get berries when our arms aren’t full,” she said. “So we’ll drop these off at the camp first.”

“If you say so.” She switched back to her cheerful self so easily. But...and maybe it was his imagination, but she seemed lighter, now. Her Boltund shot out of the brush with a joyful bark, running around their feet before blazing a way back to the campsite.

The campsite was only half set up when they returned, Hop and Marnie bent over a half collapsed tent.

“No, no, you’re supposed to put the pole into the pin  _ before _ you stake it down,” Hop said. “Didn’t you ever do this on your journey?”

“Nah,” Marnie said, tilting her head at the mess. “My big brother’s Team Yell guys always ended up showing up and doing it for me before I could even say a thing.”

“We bring firewood!” Flyssa announced. “Ah, hi there, Dubwool! Want to help me set up the campfire?”

She giggled as she shifted her kindling to one arm to pat Hop’s nosy Dubwool on the head. Her Cinderace bounced excitedly on its toes near the campfire pit, clearly excited about getting to light the flames.

“Ah, great timing! We need help with this tent,” Hop said.

“Coming!”

Flyssa hurried off, and Bede dropped his kindling into the firepit, still watching her. Was she still holding back? Was she still trying to pretend for everyone’s sakes? Or was he just looking for reasons to be annoyed with the way she smiled at Hop, at the way she easily grabbed hold of Marnie’s hand and laughed, while he hung behind, staying out of reach of her easy smiles and light touches?

Geez, he thought, running a hand down his face.

_ I’m the one who’s really running away _ , he thought.  _ From admitting that I let you keep hold of my heart like this. _


End file.
